Muslim Marketing and VUCA
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Never before has the business climate been so volatile, especially for businesses targeting minorities such as Muslims. The acronym VUCA refers to the new business ecology in which nothing appears steady, stable, or reliable.
The acronym VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. Marketing is likely one of the most difficult challenges for businesses across the globe due to changing behaviors, tools, competitive markets, practices, and media.
An example of this is when Muslim consumer attitudes toward a brand or product shift based on world events and geopolitics. An example of a product winning the positive attitudes of Muslim consumers is Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream deciding not to sell its products in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. An example of a world event that would change consumers’ perceptions would be the war in Ukraine and Russian-made products.
Ambiguity Scenarios
- Unknown duration and effects of the current situation
- Approaching a new Muslim niche within the Muslim consumer market
- New product launch
- Extending beyond specialized knowledge
- Significant organizational or leadership changes
Complexity Scenarios
- Gaining access to global markets
- Priorities that conflict or shift
- A wide range of brands, goods, supply networks, and distribution channels
- A substantial impact on your entire business ecosystem
Uncertainty Scenarios
- Unknown impact of a competitor’s new product or service
- Effects on the availability of critical resources such as capital, skills, expertise, and talent
- Previous supply and demand measures may no longer be relevant
- An imminent merger or acquisition
- Possibility of proposed laws and regulations being enacted
Volatility Scenarios
- Natural disaster
- Global health crisis
- A supply chain breakdown
- Labor unrest
- Lapse in technology
- Global political instability
- Ethics/Public Relations Scandal
Making your marketing immune to this type of disruption should be a priority for every business, big or small.
In today’s VUCA world, strict, authoritarian marketing techniques may no longer be effective, as they may result in:
- Decision-making that has become stalled
- Workforce inconsistency
- Internal cultural strife
- Making it difficult to define buyer personas
- Extending sales cycles
Muslim Marketing and Inverted VUCA
At one point, “five-year plans” were popular. Because of the erratic nature of the business environment, long-term planning, vertical structures, defined targets, and hierarchies have fallen out of favor in today’s marketing. Long-term goals have been obliterated by the VUCA acronym due to an explosion in globalization and technology. On the other hand, dynamism and agile work approaches are currently capable of mitigating the impact of market instability.
If your business wants to succeed in attracting Muslim customers in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment, it must fundamentally alter how it operates. Transparency, purpose, flexibility, and agility are the keys to adapting. The “Inverted VUCA”, a concept developed by industry pioneers, can facilitate ease.
Vision: The Vision concept includes incorporating strategic foresight into marketing frameworks. Other dimensions of vision are required in the hazy space between your business’s vulnerabilities and uncertainties. The days of achieving primary business objectives with only one vision are long gone. We live in a time of shifting realities and opposing points of view.
Understanding: You must be aware of your target audience’s preferences. Use in-depth data analysis, empathy mapping, brainstorming, and market research to develop precise parameters for business growth.
Clarity: Clarity entails communicating with the various components of a marketing environment to simplify difficult issues. You must be clear about what you require for ongoing growth, whether it is collaborating with the sales team or obtaining the best resources.
Agility: Whether it’s changing work-from-home environments or technological advancements via the cloud, the traditional marketing front has lost ground to a more agile marketing mentality. As a result, the goal is to cultivate an agile culture capable of quickly adapting and reacting to changes.
By preparing for different scenarios, businesses can create stability for themselves. In upcoming articles, we will go deeper into the VUCA elements separately and explain how to deal with them from a deeper perspective.
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